Love Amongst The Ruins
by Hanspam
Summary: "If a motley crew of eleven twenty-somethings walk up to a ten foot monster and start pelting it with stones and boulders, some people may get suspicious."
1. Default Chapter

Love Amongst the Ruins: Chapter One  
  
Rating: PG-13  
  
Author's Note: This can be seen as a continuation from Someone Else (even though I started writing this first, the storyline fits both), or taken on its own. Please read and review, or send feedback to flyingchopstick@hotmail.com.  
  
The fic begins in third person then switches to Kim's viewpoint. In consequent chapters it will return to third person.  
  
*****  
  
'it's a life not made for reliving'  
  
*****  
  
Never in their wildest dreams did they think a situation such as this would face them again. Why would they, when so much time had passed?  
  
They had entertained ideas about being called back into action. Hardly surprising, given the amount of time and energy they had devoted to saving the world. When they dreamt about being asked to defend the planet once more, the end of the fantasy was always a good one. They survived, even triumphed.  
  
None of them ever thought that they would face a losing battle, and lose. Whenever they had been surrounded by despair, they had overcome it. Sometimes at terrible cost, but they had won.  
  
Not one of them knew that they would be facing an unknown foe, with no hope of a solution, almost ten years after the first among them had been asked to save the world.  
  
Even Billy, with his extensive knowledge, could not pinpoint the identity of the monster who was threatening to wipe out six billion lives as though it were blowing out the candles on a birthday cake.  
  
*****  
  
That's how we ended up lounging around Billy's kitchen. Maybe lounging is the wrong word to use in such a situation. Perhaps 'slumping' or 'collapsing' would be more appropriate.  
  
"How many more hours before the deadline runs out?" Tommy asks dejectedly. No-one points out that this is the sixth time in two minutes that someone has asked that very question. We've all been thinking it, if not putting our query into words.  
  
Billy checks his watch. A futile exercise, really, seeing as it's obvious he already knows the answer. "Three hours and fifty-six minutes."  
  
"We've been at this for seventeen hours, and we're still no closer to finding anything that will help us stop this guy?" Jason asks us frustratedly. Once again, he jumps up and begins to pace the length of the room. Trini follows his lead, and does her best to try to soothe his anxieties, knowing that her comforting words will do much to help us all.  
  
"The details of the Zyferon monster could correspond with him, even if the image we have of him doesn't fit. The reference to the blackmail and deadlines means it's pretty similar."  
  
Adam shakes his head. "It's a pretty big hurdle though, the fact that the picture of Zyferon looks nothing like our monster. Our guy can shape- shift, but don't you think that would have been mentioned in the details we have of Zyferon? It makes no mention of it."  
  
The tension that was already palpable in the room chooses that moment to slide up a few more notches. As if it weren't already getting hard to concentrate, or even to breathe, for thinking of the task that awaited us.  
  
Sorry. You must be getting confused. Let me take you back almost twenty- four hours ago, to when this whole mess started...  
  
*****  
  
'funny how I know it's harder, it's harder now, young girl in my younger days, thinking I could live for always'  
  
The day did not begin as though it were the penultimate day of my life. It was the same as the day before, and the day before that. Wake up twenty- five minutes before I am supposed to leave the house. Quick shower, get dressed, take something to eat that vaguely resembles breakfast and barrel out of my front door, stopping only on the way out of the building to collect my mail.  
  
I thought that living across the street from where I work would make things easier. It only makes it easier to convince myself I can make myself ready for the day in twenty-five minutes. That could never happen.  
  
The point where I began to think this day could be different from the one before was when I noticed a handwritten envelope in amongst the bills, circulars, and adverts that make up the bulk of my correspondence. I wasn't about to wait until my coffee break to find out who had decided to write to me, so I opened it straight away, and was immediately confused.  
  
It was a greetings card, with no poems or jokes on the front, just a watercolour picture of flowers. When I opened the card, I expected there to be words inside. That's generally what you hope to read on the inside of a card, but it was blank.  
  
No mention of who it was from, or even that it was intended for me.  
  
On any other day, I would have hoped it was from a secret admirer. Maybe one of the cute doctors who worked in the same hospital as I did, although they tended to look down on the nurses. Maybe the very goodlooking guy who worked in the Starbucks where I got my daily dose of caffeine, although I had no idea how he knew my name, or my address.  
  
I didn't even get a chance to consider the possibilities then. It's not very often that you get an anonymous card, followed by an urgent call from an old friend, ordering you to high-tail it back to Angel Grove as soon as you possibly could, and preferably sooner.  
  
That's irony for you. The first romantic development I've had in ages, and it coincides with our latest saving-the-world mission.  
  
*****  
  
Through some twist of fate, I got a seat on the next flight out to California, if only by the skin of my teeth. All the way through the journey I ignored the in-flight magazine and complementary peanuts, thinking only of Zack's words.  
  
"Billy got a message yesterday, it said all of us were under threat from a new invasion. We all thought it was Rocky, then there was a report on the news about twenty minutes ago saying something had been sighted in Angel Grove. No idea what it is, but the news channel's staying on until we do.  
  
"We've managed to get hold of everyone in the first two teams. I'll be there to pick you and Tanya up, just hang tight and we'll come find you.  
  
"From the reactions of the people they interviewed, it was unlike anything we've ever seen before..."  
  
*****  
  
On the happier side, it was great to see everyone again, although the reason why we were all there made it slightly awkward. I'd hardly seen anyone since beginning my new job as a nurse three years ago, and it was strange to note all the changes and tensions that had not been there the last time I had attended a gathering.  
  
There were eleven of us gathered in Billy's house in Angel Grove, all of the originals, plus Zeo. And at least three pairs of 'friends' were doing their best to avoid or ignore each other.  
  
Adam and Rocky, once the best of friends, had apparently had a blazing argument a few months ago and barely spoken since. No-one knew the slightest detail about why they had fought, whenever Trini had tried to mediate she met with hostility.  
  
Zack and Aisha were skirting around each other, although the general consensus was this had more to do with mutual appreciation than loathing.  
  
And I have to lower my own maturity levels for this point, to confess that Tommy and I were the third couple who weren't on the best of terms.  
  
It's not as bad as you may think. We've spoken to each other, and while things aren't completely settled, neither of us have asked for them to be. There are times when I think I haven't moved on, but the irrefutable fact is that we have both grown up.  
  
We aren't the same people we once were. But that doesn't explain why neither of us have tried to heal the awkwardness that still exists.  
  
Zack had done as he promised, and driven Tanya and I from the airport to Billy's house, filling us in on the details that he had not had time to expand upon earlier.  
  
"According to witnesses on the last news broadcast, the thing's about ten feet tall, stands upright, two arms, two legs, claws, and an extra eye in the middle of the normal two."  
  
"What the hell is he doing in Angel Grove?" Tanya asked, leaning forward from the back seat so as to hear Zack better.  
  
Zack shrugged. "He wasn't roaming the streets of Angel Grove shouting 'give me the blood of an ex-Ranger or give me death' if that's what you're getting at. But that can't be very far from the truth."  
  
"Out of all the towns and cities in the world, choosing this one has to suggest he knows the connections," I mused aloud.  
  
"Billy said he'd record the news report on the hour for you guys to watch. I don't think Kat or Aisha will have watched it either, and the area will still be shocked enough to make it the main item on the mid-morning news."  
  
*****  
  
We were the last people to arrive at our gathering point. After hurried greetings Billy pressed the play button on his VCR in the den, and those of us who hadn't seen it prepared ourselves for the worst.  
  
It didn't look as bad as some of the monsters we'd been pitted against in the past. It wasn't revoltingly slimy, a samurai gone extremely wrong, or covered in thousands of tiny eyes. Then again, it didn't look as though brandishing feathers would knock it to the ground, either.  
  
"Those scales don't look as though they'll be penetrated easily," Kat murmured under her breath. "Anything we care to throw at him will most likely bounce off him and rebound back onto us."  
  
The news report only showed a few seconds of a clip shot earlier that day in the park, recently bought from a tourist who had been filming an idyllic, typical day in Angel Grove park. The rest of the section about the latest monster attack was taken up with witnesses describing their traumatic experiences on-camera, and nervous speculation by the local news anchors.  
  
"It was huge! I was so frightened, me and my children ran straight away."  
  
"I wanted to stay and fight this thing, but it disappeared before I had the chance."  
  
"Where are the Power Rangers when we need them? Our children need to be safe!"  
  
"That dude should be referred to as Cubatron. That sounds invincible," Rocky remarked once the segment ended and the toothy woman and suave male presenters started discussing the latest arson attack in Stone Canyon.  
  
"We can't just march in and start attacking this... thing. Not like we're used to," Aisha pointed out. "We don't have any weapons, any uniforms, any Zords to protect us."  
  
"We don't even know if this thing is out to get us, or to conquer an old foe, no matter if any Rangers still live here or not," Zack chimed in. "If a motley crew of eleven twenty-somethings walk up to a ten foot monster and start pelting it with stones and boulders, some people may get suspicious."  
  
"We may not need to resort to that. Hostile aliens can sometimes be defeated solely by psychological pressure," Billy said quietly, more to himself than to share with the group. Tommy overheard, and asked  
  
"Shouldn't the scales he's covered with mean he's more suited to physical combat, though?"  
  
"It could mean anything. The fact is, we don't know, and the only way we're going to find anything out about him is to try. Which would be insane, to say the least, given what little we know about him."  
  
Tanya's eyes lit up, and she jumped from her seat in an armchair nestled into a corner of the cosy den. "What about the Command Centre archives? Zordon was an intergalactic being, sure, but he never had any problems in identifying the aliens we fought against while we were Rangers. He must have had some sort of recording system to know the monsters so well, surely it's worth travelling down to the site to at least see if there are any discs we could search through?"  
  
Jason nodded, and also stood. "It's the best idea we've had so far, it's certainly worth a shot."  
  
Billy coughed embarrassedly, and everyone turned to look at him, wondering what he had to say. "I may have something here that could help in our quest to discover the identity of our foe. Before I left for Aquitar, Zordon gave me a disc that contained short descriptions and images of all the enemy creatures he had knowledge of, for some light reading when I had spare time. I could continue surveying the contents to see if I can pinpoint this thing, however some of us need to go to the Command Centre site as well. I have no doubt that Zordon must have been made aware of the existence of other opponents after my departure."  
  
Although I had barely seen Billy in the past three years, whenever I had spoken to him his speech patterns had been easy and relaxed. His revertion to the extended vocabulary of old told me - and everyone else - that Billy was extremely perturbed by the situation at hand. And that served to make the rest of us even more nervous.  
  
"How long will it take you to go through the disc?" Jason asked as he and Tanya both sat back down. Billy reached from his desk chair to underneath his computer, and found an unmarked disc which had been hidden beneath others.  
  
"I have spent a long time going through its contents, and haven't reached the halfway point. It's fair to say the Earth will never be short of enemies."  
  
"Is there any search criteria that you could use to shorten the time period?" I asked. The slight glimmer of hope in me vanished when Billy shook his head.  
  
"I don't know if I'm looking in the wrong part of the disc or not, but I've never found anything resembling a search facility. This will take quite a while."  
  
"As long as you quickly dismiss anything that is smaller or significantly larger than the guy we're looking for, it shouldn't take too long, should it?" Aisha asked, and Billy raised one eyebrow, in an infuriating gesture that suggested he didn't have a clue.  
  
"From the way I see it, I think we'll need to divide into three groups," Trini spoke up, with a thoughtful expression on her face. I recognised that expression - god knows how many times I'd seen it - and I knew there was no thinking about it. We needed to divide into three groups and do whatever Trini told us. "One group should stay here and go through this disc that Billy has. One group needs to go to the Command Centre site and search through whatever debris remains, to see if there's anything there that can be salvaged and may be of some use. The last group should patrol Angel Grove, not necessarily taking any action, but being of guard, and seeing if they can find anything or speak to anyone who can help."  
  
Everyone nodded, realising the sense of Trini's plan.  
  
"There are eleven of us, so that makes two groups of four and one of three," Tommy declared, having no problem slipping back into the old 'leader mode' that I recognised so well. "Billy, you'd better stay and go through the disc as you're the only one who knows how to access and move through its contents. Who do you want to help you?"  
  
"As long as they don't object, Trini and Adam. Both of them were familiar with the operation of the Command Centre and the technology Zordon used in recording data, and that would help greatly."  
  
Trini and Adam nodded their acquiesence to the plan.  
  
"I'll patrol Angel Grove, and you take a group up to the mountains?" Jason suggested, and Tommy nodded. "I'll take Aisha, Kat and Rocky."  
  
Although I didn't notice it at the time, Trini assures me that at that moment in time Tommy glared ferociously at Jason's plan to include me in the group going to the mountains.  
  
Despite the - alleged - glare, Tommy nodded, and stood up. "Fine by me. We've got no time to lose, so let's get things moving. Shall we say to return here in two hours time? That is to say..." he consulted his watch, "Midday?"  
  
Jason nodded. "Midday it is. Everybody, if you have your cell phone with you, keep it on. We'll need to keep in contact frequently, and phone another team if you run into trouble."  
  
How nice it was to be under the orders of leader figures again, instead of making our own decisions.  
  
And if you can't notice the sarcasm....  
  
*****  
  
Next chapter should follow before the end of the week. Don't forget to review! 


	2. Chapter 2

Love Amongst the Ruins: Chapter Two  
  
Rating/Disclaimer: See first chapter.  
  
Author's note: Sorry this took so long, but I lost my notebook and had the little matter of my eighteenth birthday to attend to. Hopefully I'll be back on a regular posting schedule before too long. In the meantime, enjoy! *****  
  
Observing the information laid out before him, Billy sighed. Information about Rita and Zedd's henchmen always fascinated him, but today there was no time to discover more inane facts about them. Knowing that Finster had been suspected to be a relative of the ancient Greek royal family, however interesting, would not help them now. He decided to share his frustrations with the rest of the group. "This isn't working. Even though I'm only skimming quickly through the descriptions of these things, it's taking too long."  
  
"And you're 100% positive that there's no search facility on the disc that we can use to track this thing down?" Adam asked. Billy closed his eyes and asked whatever higher being there was up there to give him strength. He responded in clipped tones.  
  
"As sure as I can be, and I really don't think we can waste any more time looking for one."  
  
Trini realised Billy was nearing the end of his metaphorical tether, and intervened. "Besides, even if there was a search facility, what would we use for criteria? Tall, evil and ugly? We can't necessarily rely on the witness statements, knowing as we do that Angel Grove citizens are not exactly reliable under pressure. It'll surely be easier to check through the images and see whether anything matches."  
  
Although Billy and Trini weren't as close friends as they had been, due to time and distance constraints, both were gratified to realise that the bond of understanding between them still existed, and knew it was likely to come in useful in the near future.  
  
"At least we can be thankful that Zordon and Alpha kept a detailed inventory of possible opponents. No wonder that they always knew exactly which opponents we were facing, and it never took them too long to work out a way of defeating them."  
  
"Do the summary descriptions give any ideas as to how you can defeat them?" Adam asked curiously. If they did, the disc was worth more than pure gold - to whoever it possessed, and to whoever wanted it.  
  
"Not per se. They mention weak spots of each enemy, but Zordon and Alpha must have worked out how to defeat each monster as they came," Billy told him, his momentary irritation with Adam dissipated. "Maybe it was on another disc, or they just used superior intelligence, but they always knew."  
  
Adam and Trini discussed anything at all they could use or do to speed up the search, while Billy went back to his task of viewing the full contents of the disc as quickly as possible, and tried as best he could to keep his growing worries at bay.  
  
He had two main concerns, that he wasn't searching quickly enough to make the task worthwhile, and that Adam and Trini were left on the sidelines after he had given them a basic lesson on how to manouevre their way around the disc. Any worries he had about the actual capabilities of the monster and how they could even attempt to defeat it were placed determinedly to the back of his head, to be dealt with when he had the time.  
  
Tuning into Adam and Trini's conversation, he realised they were no longer discussing the task at hand, but whether Yahoo or Alta Vista were the better search engine.  
  
"Guys, make yourself useful and see what ideas you can come up with for defeating this thing," Billy suggested. "Although I can't help but think we could outwit the thing by words alone, Tommy and Jason are bound to think physical combat's the way forward. We could at least give them a helping hand by discussing possible weapons."  
  
"What's making you think we could talk it out of killing us all?" Trini asked curiously, and Billy couldn't come up with an answer to her question straight away. He once again diverted his attention, and swiveled on his chair to face two of his oldest friends.  
  
"I can't put my finger on it, to be perfectly honest. I just think that anything that looks so impenetratable has to have a weak point somewhere. There's no sign of one anywhere on his body that I could see when watching the news report, so my mind automatically turned to psychological pressure."  
  
Adam nodded. "It makes sense, but so does fighting him, to be honest."  
  
"If we did fight him, at the moment we have no viable weapons to use," Billy reminded him. "I can't help but feel that a saucepan and a hammer are going to do much good, which are the only things we can use as weapons in this house. This 'Cubatron' looks as though a ten foot chisel wouldn't even begin to cut through his armour."  
  
"I take your point, Billy, but what is there to use?" Trini asked him.  
  
"There's nothing left of our Zords at the Command Centre or the old holding site," Adam informed them. "I was the last of us to go up there, as far as I know, and when I got there the whole area was cordoned off by police barriers, so I couldn't go inside. When I've been there before though, there's been nothing left of them. There may be some discs or documents remaining, but I wouldn't place my life on it."  
  
"The Command Centre was cordoned off? Why?" Billy demanded.  
  
"Why didn't you tell any of us?" Trini said simultaneously.  
  
"It was only about three weeks ago, I guess. I went up there to think - it's always been the best place to get my head straight, but you guys would know that as well as I do." Billy and Trini nodded, though they'd never thought to explore the remains of the site, they had both been up there more than once when the pressures of everyday life became too much for them. "Anyway. I parked my car about one hundred metres away, and walked there. I couldn't see it from my car, but when I got nearer I saw there were a couple of police cars parked there, and police markers all around. None of the police would say anything about what they were doing there, except that 'an incident had occured' " Adam made the quotation marks with his fingers. "I meant to tell someone, but I've been so busy at work that I hadn't seen anyone since this morning. I kept a lookout in the local papers but nothing's been mentioned about it."  
  
Billy sighed, and rubbed his temples. "Now we know this, we could conclude from this that someone knew what was going to happen today, how our train of thought would work, and got to the Command Centre before we could, to get whatever we could have used to defeat Cubatron."  
  
"Billy, it could have been something completely different. It could have been anything! A fight between two animals and someone reported spilled blood, or the discovery of a stolen purse," Trini said quickly, trying to bring Billy's spirits back up.  
  
"That doesn't explain why there was such a high police presense," Adam said reluctantly. "There were at least six of them there. Why don't we get in touch with Tommy's team and see if they've noticed anything untoward?"  
  
"None of their cell phones will work in the mountains," Billy pointed out. He thought for a moment, a desperate expression on his tired face. "Why don't you keep on as you were, or were about to be? Keep thinking about what we could use as weapons. I'll try and gain access to the AGPD website and see if there's anything relevant to what Adam's just said that they're deliberately keeping from the general public."  
  
Trini and Adam nodded in agreement, neither of them able to think of anything they could do which would be better, and the three who had remained behind returned to their tasks, all feeling increasingly as though what they were doing would have been of no use at all.  
  
*****  
  
Tommy, Aisha, Kim and Tanya all piled silently into Aisha's decrepid station wagon, ready for their trip into the mountainous areas surrounding Angel Grove.  
  
"What should we be prepared to see when - when we get there?" Aisha asked hesitantly as she started the engine. Although she lived nearby, she had never quite summoned enough - courage? strength? - to make the journey to the ruins of the Command Centre. She had hoped it would never be necessary.  
  
Tommy shook his head. "I'm not sure, I haven't had a look around in any depth. From what I've seen in driving past, there's no large debris left, not that we would expect any to remain this long without causing suspicions. We may come across a couple of discs or documents that could be of some use, but I'm not hopeful of finding anything more."  
  
"So everything was destroyed?" Kim asked, turning her head away from the window where she was watching the streets of Angel Grove race by.  
  
"As far as we know, yeah. Billy's disc is probably the only source of information we'll get, but it won't tell us if there were any holding areas outside the vicinity that we didn't know about," Tanya said.  
  
A silence fell over the vehicle as they all contemplated what had gone on during their times as Rangers and the changes after they had served their duty. Without noticing it, the car soon left the suburbs of Angel Grove behind and followed the dusty road up into the mountains.  
  
Tanya, from her vantage point in the backseat and conveniently placed so she could see all her friend's expressions, whether from turning her head to see reflections in the rear-view mirror or to look at Kim sitting beside her, decided after a good few minutes of silence that something had to be done to break the ice. Although the situation they were facing was undoubtedly a serious one, she had a feeling that they would not be of use unless at ease with each other, and for whichever reason, that was not the case at the moment. A little light-hearted teasing may not go amiss...  
  
"So, Aisha. How have things been going with you?" Tanya asked innocently, while catching Kim's eye and winking to let her know this conversation would not necessarily be a serious one.  
  
Aisha sighed, not yet realising that something was amiss. "Almost out of vet school, although I'm missing an important assessment today to do this. Hopefully I'll be able to find a job locally, I'm sick of being away at school."  
  
"Any, ah... romantic attachments that might keep you at school?" Kim asked nonchalantly, staring out of her side window once again, so if Aisha happened to take her eyes off the road she wouldn't notice the smile that played about her lips.  
  
"No... don't think I don't know what you two are doing here!" Aisha protested as she realised what her two friends were trying to do to her. "This is all an elaborate ploy to get me to 'fess up to some imaginary crush on Zack, isn't it!" she said indignantly.  
  
"You said it, we didn't," Tanya murmured. "Although I must question you on your use of the word 'imaginary' in that sentence. Anyone with eyes can see you have the hots for each other."  
  
"There's really nothing going on!" she protested feebly, blushing to the roots of her hair. She'd really hoped their flirtation would have gone unnoticed, but apparently not. Even Kim had somehow gotten wind of it, and she hadn't been there when the worst of the flirting had taken place...  
  
"Oh, come on Aisha. I'm a guy, and even I noticed what was going on at the last group dinner," Tommy pointed out. "There's no use in pretending nothing's going on."  
  
"This is so unfair. I can't even hide my blush from you guys or I'll run the car off the road," Aisha mumbled to herself, realising that with Tanya and Kim to answer to, she'd have no other way out but to tell the truth. Still, there could be no harm in delaying the inevitable... "There's nothing going on! How many more times do I have to tell you people?"  
  
"About as many times as it takes for it to become true?" Kim suggested. "We're not blind, you know. We're your friends, and I for one would not tell anything to anyone else - you know, should you decide to get anything off your chest."  
  
"Me too."  
  
"Me three," Tanya confirmed. "God knows we could all use a little gossip right now, and I command you to provide it."  
  
"Oh, you command me?" Aisha giggled. "I'm the driver of this car..."  
  
"Okay, then as ex-leader and general tallest person in this car, I command you," Tommy said. "Please just get it over with."  
  
"There's nothing even to tell!" Aisha wailed. "It was flirting, nothing more interesting than that, and we were going to go for dinner, but our schedules didn't match. It's so awkward, especially now we're meeting up with all our friends around, pointing and laughing."  
  
"We may have laughed, but we've never pointed," Tanya said solemnly.  
  
"It doesn't help that all I really know about him is he's a good dancer! I could be falling for a guy who's my complete opposite in every way."  
  
"Let's remedy that, shall we?" Kim asked, leaning forward so Aisha could hear her better. "Did you ever hear about the birthday party that we threw for him at the Youth Centre?"  
  
Aisha shook her head. "Go on..."  
  
*****  
  
"So the little dude ended up as a DJ at Zack's dance competition? Classic!" Tanya laughed as the car made its final twists and turns toward the remains of the Command Centre. Throughout the remainder of the car journey Kim and Tommy had kept Aisha well regaled with tales of Zack's youth and the early days of the Rangers, and had just concluded the saga of the Island of Illusion.  
  
"Yeah, but I still don't think he liked me," Kim reflected ruefully. "Maybe he'd heard I was smaller than I was, and was bitterly disappointed he still didn't have anyone to look down upon."  
  
"I don't think it helped that you called him Quasimodo instead of Quagmire on more than one occasion," Tommy pointed out. The initial tension between the two of them had all but disappeared sometime in the period of reminiscence, when they remembered the days when being a Ranger had been equally balanced between hard work and fun.  
  
These days - or to be more precise, this day - fun was hard to come by, and it was necessary to make the most of any lightheartedness that came their way.  
  
"I'm going to pull the car in over here," Aisha mumbled. "There isn't exactly going to be much traffic in this area."  
  
She steered the car over to the side of the road, and killed the engine. The four of them sat in silence, wondering which words needed to be said, if any. Tommy finally took the plunge, and delivered them their traditional pep talk.  
  
"I know...I know that none of us ever expected to be in this position again," he said haltingly. "But if we're going to help Angel Grove one more time, and whoever else may be under threat from this monster, then we're going to have to search this place properly. It's doubtful that we'll find anything we can use, I know that as much as you guys do, but we have to try. Any kind of information we find could be what we need, so we have to cover the site quickly, but thoroughly. And try to look as though we all want to be here."  
  
Three heads nodded in agreement to Tommy's speech. They knew as well as he did that none of them wanted to be doing this again, but they were all the citizens of Angel Grove had. The FBI had never intervened in alien business before, what could make them think this was any different? All the other groups of Rangers, ex or otherwise, were unreachable or unknown to them.  
  
It was up to them.  
  
No more words were spoken as the four of them got out of the car and walked the short distance to their targeted area. They silently moved to seperate vicinities and began combing through the surface dirt, hoping they would come across something they could use to help them find any answers. Anything at all that might dispell their fears that 'Cubatron' was invincible.  
  
Aisha was the first to discover anything at all of use - the discarded police cordon that had worried Billy, Trini and Adam so badly. "Look what I found!" she yelled, holding a portion of the yellow and black tape over her head so that her friends would see.  
  
Tommy, Tanya and Kim all turned excitedly towards Aisha when hearing her speak, hoping for part of a weapon, a crumpled computer printout, anything of use. Initial disappointment upon seeing the tape was replaced by curiosity as they realised exactly what Aisha held in her hand, and they made their way from their own unfruitful searches to join her.  
  
She had found the cordon not far from where the Command Centre had stood, but tangled next to a boulder about ten metres away from the outskirts of the site.  
  
"Why would someone want to cordon off the site?" Kim muttered to herself as she picked up another fragment of yellow tape.  
  
Tommy tried to ignore the sickening feeling growing in the pit of his stomach, but it refused to go away. He couldn't ignore his instinct, and it forced him to put his fears into words. "I guess the police could have found something incriminating, so they secured the site. But..."  
  
"What?" Tanya pressed when the pause in his speech grew bigger. Tommy sighed, and took Kim's portion of tape to examine it.  
  
"The way this has been taken down... It doesn't look like a human could have done it. The ends almost look as though they've been clawed at, not cut, to be broken."  
  
"So you're saying Cubatron could have gotten here first, and taken anything that could have given us a clue as to his identity before we got here?" Tanya surmised.  
  
Tommy sighed, and rubbed his temples. "In a nutshell, exactly."  
  
"But why was the tape put up in the first place?" Aisha wondered aloud. "It wouldn't just be there for no reason. Something has to have happened here before Monster-Man came along."  
  
Kim pulled her cellphone from her pocket, and swore under her breath when she remembered no signal would reach the phone in these conditions. "Should we go back and let the others know what's happened? Maybe Billy and Trini could work on it."  
  
"We could pay a visit to the police station on the way back ourselves," Aisha suggested. "Let's face it, we've been here for twenty-five minutes and found nothing of note. No matter who was here before us, they did a pretty good job of clearing the place. Now we know what we know - "  
  
"There's still a chance whoever was here may have missed something," Tommy intervened. "Why don't we stay for twenty minutes or so, then we head back to Billy's and give them the heads-up on this cordon and anything else we may find. Is that okay?"  
  
A grunt, a nod of the head, and an "I guess" followed the compromise, and they returned to searching through dusty debris, hoping whatever they were looking for had not already been found by the enemy.  
  
*****  
  
"What are we going to do if we stumble across this Scale-Man, Cubatron thing? Shake his hand, and say 'Good day to you, we be the rangers of power from Earth?' " Rocky complained as the four of them aimlessly wandered down another Angel Grove street.  
  
"We only say that if we've stepped into a time hole and become comrades of Robin Hood," Zack decided. "In this universe, we scream and run, just like our good Angel Grove citizens did earlier today."  
  
"What time is it now?" Kat asked, as she turned to check the opening of a narrow side street. Satisfied that no monster resided there, she rejoined Rocky, Jason and Zack on their patrol.  
  
Jason checked his watch. "Just gone noon, by my watch. We've been doing this for twenty minutes, and it's as though this thing's already wreaked havoc on the city."  
  
Jason's words were certainly true. Even on a Tuesday morning, Angel Grove should have been busier that this, but their voices seemed to be echoing in the quiet expances of the streets. The few people who were walking from road to road seemed more hurried than usual, their gazes darted from side to side and they soon disappeared from the main thoroughfare of the business district. Whenever a person passed them by, all four pairs of eyes followed them until they passed from sight.  
  
"You would think they'd be used to this kind of thing by now," Kat commented quietly. "It's as though it's the first time the city's been attacked."  
  
"Even the first time it happened, there was a hell of a lot more panic than this," Jason remembered. "I guess it's brought back memories; people are more scared now than they were then because they know what can happen."  
  
"And nobody ever answered my question of what we should do if we come across this regurgiated fish," Rocky reminded them once again. "I hardly think our powers will magically come back if we call for them, or our Zords can reassemble from the ashes."  
  
There was an awkward pause following Rocky's words, as they realised they had absolutely no idea of what they could do or say should they come into contact with this pesky foe.  
  
"Run straight back to Billy's and barriade the doorways?" Zack suggested. "That's the most feasible option I can come up with."  
  
"If we make any attempt to attack it will only draw attention to ourselves, and that can't be a good thing," Jason mused.  
  
"We don't have to go as far as barricading the doorways, but if we do see the Cubatron, we'd be better off heading back to Billy's," Kat conceded. "To paraphrase the well-known saying, eleven heads are better than one, and we really shouldn't make any decisions without the others."  
  
"And the voice of reason speaks again," Rocky concluded.  
  
Kat was about to retort with a remark about sarcasm being the lowest form of wit, when Jason held up a hand, signalling for the banter to stop. His gaze was fastened onto an unconspicious teenager, who was looking back at him with no trace of fear or apprehension in his eyes. He stood about fifty metres away from them, a baseball cap shading his facial features so none of them could tell what he looked like. Jason spoke softly.  
  
"That guy has been one step ahead of us for a while now."  
  
"You think he knows something?" Kat replied in the same hushed tones. Jason nodded his head, and Zack interjected.  
  
"What about the possibility that he's been bribed to follow us? Either the thing's working along and has scared the kid into submission, or there are higher powers at work."  
  
"We've got nothing to lose by going up to him and asking what's going on," Rocky hissed and jerked his thumb towards the subject of their uneasiness. "Look at him! He hasn't moved while we've been stood here. If that's not the worst display of guilt, I don't know what is."  
  
"I'll go talk to him," Jason proposed. "Give me two minutes and then follow. He shouldn't be too difficult to overpower if needs be, but I may need some backup."  
  
He moved away from Zack, Rocky and Kat, and strode purposefully towards the gangly teenager. Once the kid realised Jason had the intention of speaking to him, and had come to terms with his bulky frame, he remained rooted to the spot, as though there were no point in fleeing.  
  
As Jason moved closer, he worked out silently what he wanted to say. There was no point in beating around the bush, neither was there any point in being overly aggressive with him. All they wanted from this seemingly inexperienced kid was information - if he had any to give.  
  
"Excuse me," he called, once he was close enough to be heard without having to shout. The boy's head turned into the light, and Jason could see his clearly pained and frightened expression. "What's going on? This place is deserted."  
  
"There's, um..." The boy shuffled his feet from side to side and blew a stray hair out of his face. "Do you know a guy called Jason Scott? You look like the description I got given but I wasn't sure... there's something I gotta give him but there's no address or anything."  
  
"I know him," Jason said, then decided there was nothing left to lose. "I am him. Jason Scott, I mean. I can show you ID - "  
  
"No, that's not necessary. I've been walking Angel Grove all morning looking for tall guys with brown hair - did you know there are more of them here than you'd think?" He took off his baseball cap to rub his forehead, and Jason felt oddly comforted to see he bore more than a passing resemblance to Skull. "Anyway, I've spent longer than I should. I need to be at home, hiding from this monster-thing." He pulled an envelope from the tattered rucksack he'd been carrying, and handed it to Jason, before turning to walk away.  
  
"Wait a minute. Who gave this envelope to you?" Jason asked, turning the brown envelope over to see if there was any indication as to where it came from. There were none.  
  
"I've been told not to say... Let's just make it clear that if I say anything, I'm toast. You get my meaning?" The boy's eyes darted nervously down the street, and he jammed the faded baseball vap back onto his head, hiding his features once more. "Later. And... good luck."  
  
Before Jason had the chance to stop the teenager and try to get further information from him, he had turned the street corner and disappeared from view. Rather than chase him, Jason walked to meet Kat, Rocky and Zack, who were walking up to him now that the boy had gone.  
  
"What did he give you?" Kat asked curiously, eyeing the envelope in Jason's grasp with caution.  
  
"It could only be a letter, but I'm not sure whether it's safe to open," Jason admitted to the others. He normally wouldn't reveal such insecurities, but these weren't normal times.  
  
"I suggest going back to Billy's, maybe he'd be able to check for us whether there's anything untoward about it before we open it," Zack said firmly. "I'm sure he'll know what to do."  
  
Jason nodded, and looked to Kat and Rocky for their agreement.  
  
"There's not really anything we can do here, what with not seeing him around and all. But come to think of it, Cubatron or some accomplice must have seen us at some point during the day, probably after he was all over the news."  
  
"What makes you say that?" Kat asked.  
  
"How else would whoever it was have known to address the envelope to Jason Scott?" Rocky demanded.  
  
No-one had an answer to that. 


	3. Chapter 3

Rating/Disclaimer/Summary: Chapter One.  
  
Author's Note: Thanks to everyone who's reviewed, and I'm sorry I've kept you waiting for so long. This chapter is quite short, but it seemed like a good way to end it, and the next chapter is being worked on as you read. Probably. It depends how many exams I should be revising for... Anyway, I hope that you enjoy it, and please review!  
  
**********  
Billy, Trini and Adam's silent state of research was rudely interrupted by the return of Tommy's team from the mountains. The four all trooped in, looking utterly defeated, and more importantly, empty handed.  
  
"Did you get anything?" Trini asked worriedly, looking up from the piece of paper she was reading. Despite the high possibility that they would have come up against a brick wall, she had clung onto a faint hope that her friends may have found something, anything which would be able to help them in their quest.  
  
"Absolutely nothing," Kim said, and slumped into the sofa next to her best friend.  
  
"Well, that's not quite true," Tommy corrected. "We didn't find anything, but now we know that someone was definitely there before us. If anything useful had been there, it's gone now."  
  
"I didn't get the chance to tell you before you left," Adam admitted. "I knew the police had been up there sometime ago." He shut his reference book with a satisfying snap. "I was up there about three weeks ago, and there were about six of them taking a look around. None of them looked as though they were holding anything, or had found anything at all, come to that."  
  
"The police weren't the only ones who had paid a visit," Tanya declared, holding up a particularly savaged piece of police cordon. "This looks as though it's been chewed through by a desperate monster. Although that would mean he'd have made two trips to the site, unless we're dealing with more than one adversary."  
  
"May I have a look?" Billy asked, moving away from the laptop to take the cordon from Tanya's grasp, and held it up to the light in order to see it more clearly. After a pause of some seconds, he handed it back to her, and sighed. "Well, it could have been ripped by hand by a frustrated policeman who didn't have any scissors to hand, but that's unlikely to say the least. It's certain that the edges weren't cut by scissors or any kind of knife, so you're most likely right to say it was broken by our angry friend."  
  
"I guess we have to consider all available possibilities," Trini remarked, and the group fell into silence as they all strove to think of a solution to their problem, or any little thing that they could do to ease the current pressure. Trini was the first to speak again, as her eyes lit up with the possibility of a genuine new idea that just might work. "Billy, you're our technological genius. Is there any way that you could hack into the AGPD's internal website, and find out for sure what they were doing up at the Command Centre, and whether they found anything useful there?"  
  
Billy almost looked hopeful at her suggestion, then his positive expression turned to one of outrage as the implications of the act hit him. "Trini, do you have any idea of how many methods they could and would use to track me down if they find out someone's been hacking into their website? I'm a research scientist, not a Web expert."  
  
"More to the point, do you realise we all know perfectly well that you could hack into any computer without being caught, Web expert or not?" Kim retorted. "I don't remember you being such a Mr. Morality when Zack asked you to wipe his driver's license clean, and that wasn't in a life or death situation. Unless I'm very much mistaken, this is."  
  
Billy looked absolutely flabbergasted, much to the amusement of his friends. "How do you know about that?"  
  
"I use old-fashioned word-of-mouth to track down secrets. Not hacking into restricted computer files," Kim smield sweetly.  
  
"Come on, Billy. We'll most likely be dead one way or the other, so what will it matter?" Tanya urged.  
  
"Go on..."  
  
"I never said I wouldn't do it," Billy reminded his anxiously persuasive friends. "Just that I'm going to have to be extremely careful. And it might take a while, which would mean leaving the trawling through the disc."  
  
"From the lack of general jubilation when you entered, you may have gathered that Billy's wonder-disc doesn't come with a search facility," Adam informed them. "Although Trini and I are beginning to see the wood for the trees when it comes to finding or making weapons."  
  
"Really? How?" Tommy asked, impressed. "That's more than we managed to do."  
  
"I wouldn't describe it as headway," Trini demurred, "more of a vague suggestion. What we'd have to do is find a hell of a lot of wood, chop it up, and turn the pieces into objects that may or may not resemble conventional weapons."  
  
"Maybe Billy was right earlier," Tanya murmured. Kim caught her quiet words, and turned towards her.  
  
"What was Billy right about?"  
  
"When he said this thing could be defeated psychologically, rather than physically. It's looking more and more as though that armour wasn't made to be penetrated, yet there must be some way we can get rid of him."  
  
"It's worth a shot, at least," Tommy agreed, "but we should wait til Jase and the team get back. Did they check in at all?"  
  
"No, but the rendez-vous time is only a couple of minutes away, so there's no need to panic," Adam reminded him.  
  
"So Trini, what kind of weapons could we feasibly make out of this wood we're going to find that wouldn't break or snap as soon as they touched our monster-man?" Aisha asked Trini.  
  
"Call me stupid, but why can't we just go out and buy some steel piping and crack him over the head with it?" Kim asked. "Let's face it; no-one is exactly going to be surprised at people buying things to 'protect' themselves with. The whole city did it every day when we were under attack regularly."  
  
"Money, the fact that if we're seen later on attacking this thing and survive, the person who sold us the weapons will have credit card details... I don't know about everyone else, but I would root for making weapons," Trini told her friend.  
  
"Bear in mind that I haven't shot a bow and arrow in seven years if you decide to make me one," Kim reminded the room in general. "There's more than a possibility that I may be a touch out of practise."  
  
"I agree with Kim on this one," Tommy spoke up in support of his ex- girlfriend. "I'm not disputing that it would be cheaper to go to a junkyard and pick up scraps of debris to work with than buying rifles or whatever. But we have to think seriously about how effective that kind of ammo would be."  
  
Trini looked faintly mutinous, and was about to respond, when the door opened and the four missing friends returned from a day at the office. Jason was brandishing a letter in his fisted right hand as he stormed in, and Zack, Kat and Rocky crowded in behind him, all looking equally worried.  
  
"What's the matter?" Tommy asked, and jumped up from his seat on the sofa immediately.  
  
"No sign of Cubatron - "  
  
"Streets deserted - "  
  
"This kid was always one step ahead of us - "  
  
"He had a letter addressed to me," Jason clarified, seeing the confused look on the sea of faces staring at them. "We thought we'd better wait till we got back to open it. I don't know how many speed limits I broke, or how many red lights I jumped, but it still seemed like it took forever to get here."  
  
"Well don't leave it any longer, open it!" Tanya urged, as everyone clustered around the returning group in order to try and read over Jason's shoulder as he opened the envelope, a task that was proving impossible.  
  
Jason looked around at everyone, apprehension at what the letter might contain beginning to show on his face. Finally, after what seemed like an eternity, he sighed and ripped open the envelope.  
  
"For the attention of Jason Scott, Tomy Oliver, and all the ex Power Rangers to be found in their presence."  
  
"What an opener," Rocky muttered under his breath, rolling his eyes. "He couldn't just say our names?" A sharp nudge in the ribs from Aisha soon put paid to his running commentary.  
  
Jason paused, then continued, looking more and more peturbed as the words unfolded.  
  
"I am aware that you wish to defeat me. I feel duty-bound to tell you that your task is impossible. No weapon can pierce my armour. No weapon can kill me.  
  
"I have been sent here to destroy your planet, and I do not intend to stop until I have completed this task. Any move I make in Angel Grove will come to pass in every habitation across the world.  
  
"But let it never be said that I do not propose fair tasks for my adversaries. I give you until twelve noon tomorrow to do what you will. Make your last plans to attempt to kill me. I will not stop you, only warn that there is no point to your actions. By 12.01 you will all have been eliminated, as will have your planet.  
  
"Inform no-one else of the contents of this letter, and in that I include your family members. If you tell another soul, I will be forced to annul our agreement and take action immediately."  
  
*****  
  
"And that's where it ends," Jason said heavily, stooping to drop the crumpled letter on Billy's coffee table, where Tommy picked it up to read over again. "No hint of a name, where he's from, if he's working for anyone. Apart from the deadline, he didn't really tell us anything we didn't already know."  
  
"Maybe this really is the end," Zack said, his eyes downcast and looking despondent - the opposite of the normal Zack, in fact. "Think of it this way, before you shoot me down - how many chances went our way when we were active Rangers? Even though they could have turned against us and killed us all so many times? It could just be payback time."  
  
"Fate has a sick sense of humour if that's the case," Aisha murmured.  
  
"We can't think like this!" Tanya cried, breaking the tension that had been steadily creeping throughout the room since Jason had begun reading the letter. "We've stared death in the face before and come out winners, so we can do it again. This just means that Billy's theory that we can beat him pyschologically is probably true. The language in that letter was too belligerent, self-confident. If we believe there's no way to beat him, then we won't even try."  
  
"Say you're right, Tanya. What do we do now?" Adam asked. "I doubt there'll be a section in your avergae psychology textbook called 'How To Defeat Really Ugly Invincible Monsters' ".  
  
"I agree with Tanya, but I also think he's bluffing when he says no weapons can defeat him," Tommy said quietly. "At the very least, it won't hurt us to have some sort of protection against him."  
  
"So we put some of us on weapons duty, what is there for the rest of us to do?" Kat asked, letting some of her agitation creep into her voice. She felt slightly ashamed for showing her fears in front of the rest of the group, but upon looking at eveyone else, she realised that everyone else looked as panicked as she felt.  
  
"If no-one else minds, I'll go back to infiltrating the AGPD website," Billy offered. "Even though we're working to a newly enforced deadline, we may yet gain clues from the incidents at the Command Center."  
  
Jason turned to Tommy. "You didn't find anything?"  
  
Tommy shook his head. "Not a thing, except evidence of police having been there recently, and a possible animal attack that could have been our guy."  
  
"Damn."  
  
"I'll run back to my apartment and get my lap-top so I can carry on searching through this disc, unless anyone else wants to take on the task," Trini proposed. "It's just a matter of whether I can find the file in time."  
  
"Fine, but I'm not letting you go back to your place alone, Trini," Jason warned her.  
  
"What, you think I'm going to lose my way or something? I can navigate my way to my apartment perfectly well, thank you," Trini retorted, looking slightly annoyed at her boyfriend's over-protectiveness.  
  
"But if someone else goes with you, then you can take care of patrolling the streets for an hour before you come back," Jason insisted. "The disc can wait. You and Rocky take first run."  
  
Jason's eyes showed he would brook no arguments with her that day, and Trini submitted, although shooting warning eyes at him that plainly said 'We will discuss this later'.  
  
"While Trini and Rocky are doing that, what do you want the rest of us to do?" Aisha asked.  
  
Tommy and Jason looked at each other for a moment, before realising that both of them had no idea as to what the rest of them could do. Or, for that matter, how they could go about defeating this 'invincible' monster.  
  
Maybe that was the point. 


End file.
